END ZERO TOLERANCE

Statewide Trends and Policies

• Police and Pennsylvania's Schools: What Education Leaders Need to Know, October 2019

• Disparate and Punitive Impact of Exclusionary Practices on Students of Color, Students with Disabilities and LGBTQ Students in Pennsylvania Public Schools, 2021, see ACLU testimony

• ACLU Recommendations to the Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Taskforce, 2021

• Student Arrests in Pennsylvania: A Closer Look 

• Joint State Government Commission Report to the Pennsylvania Legislature on Zero Tolerance School Discipline Policies,  October 2016, See executive summary, full report, ACLU analysis, and news article

• Beyond Zero Tolerance: Discipline and Policing in Pennsylvania Public Schools, 2015, see PA study

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Pennsylvania Facts and Trends

• Supporting Pennsylvania Students: The Choice, fact sheet on arrests and school staffing ratios

• Fast Facts on School Safety: The Research. View Blog, PDF, 2022

• Which PA Schools Reported the Most Arrests in 2018-19?

 

Student Rights

• Know Your Rights: A Handbook for Public School Students in Pennsylvania​

• 2022 Back-to-School Guide for Pennsylvania Public School Students, Education Law Center, 2022

 

Podcasts and Audio

• School Safety and Civil Rights in Pennsylvania  [Podcast], 2018

• The Role of Police Officers in Schools [Audio] 2015

• Racial Disparities in School Discipline [Audio], 2014

 

Policing and Juvenile Justice

• Keeping Misbehaving Students Off the Streets, But Not Off the Hook

• Philadelphia Youth Advocacy Groups Push for a Complaint System about School Police Officers, 2017

• ​In Philadelphia, School Police Outnumber Counselors

• Limiting Police Involvement in Low-Level Violations of the Code of Conduct, 2014

• Alternatives to Arrest: Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court. Philadelphia School Diversion Program. MOU and Program Brochure

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Early Childhood Education

• Policy Statement: Inclusion of All Children in Early Childhood Programs in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Office of Childhood Development and Early Learning, 2020

• Philadelphia School District Ends Suspensions from Kindergarten through Second Grade, 2018. See new policy, administrative procedures, and press release.

• Pittsburgh School District Bans Suspensions for Students in Kindergarten through Second Grade, 2018. See policy.

• Promoting Inclusion and Reducing Expulsion and Suspension, PA’s Office of Childhood Development and Early Learning web portal

• Why Is It So Hard to Stop Suspending Kindergarteners? 2017

• Policy Statement: Reduction of Expulsion and Suspension in Early Childhood Programs in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Office of Childhood Development and Early Learning, 2017

• Resolution of PA's State Interagency Coordination Council: Ban Exclusionary Discipline in Early Learning Programs, 2016

• ​Preschool to Prison Pipeline: Exclusionary Discipline in Preschool Programs, 2016

< Early Childhood  

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Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Schools and Police

• Model Memorandum of Understanding - ACLU comments on PA's model schools-police MOU

• Updated ACLU comments on PA's Model MOU, 2023